Michael McCarthy

Articles by this author

Michael McCarthy, I. Armit, Chris Gaffney and Bobby Friel

The Isle of Whithorn: Towards a Reassessment

Archaeology (General), Iron Age, Early Mediaeval, Mediaeval

TDGNHAS Series III, 84 (2010), 43(3.44 MB)

Abstract

One of the characteristic archaeological features of the Machars is the series of promontory forts occupying remote headlands projecting out into Wigtown Bay, Luce Bay and the Irish Sea. They are generally characterized by one or more ramparts and ditches that appear to cut the headland off from its hinterland, but little is known about them. Morphologically they are a class of monument typical of the Iron Age and attributed very broadly to the second half of the 1st millennium BC (Armit 1997, 59; Harding 2004, 144-7).